As our plane landed, all I could see was green around the dirt landing strip. Trees, bushes, and tall grass crowded my view of the jeep that would take us to the cabins. We piled our duffel back in the back and drove off. Once my family – my parents, grandparents, uncle, and cousin – and I arrived, the managers and staff all welcomed us. Everyone was so friendly! They showed us around where we would be staying for the next week; the view from our cabin was breathtaking. We could walk out of our cabin and an elephant would be standing less than 15 feet away eating leaves in the cool shade of the tree.

The morning after we had arrived and were all settled in, we went on a game drive. We did not go on these game drives to kill, just to observe the animals in their natural habitat. Therefore, a better word for me to use is safari. Anyway, I must have taken at least a hundred pictures in that morning alone. In the week we stayed there we went on two safaris per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We saw lions, elephants, and giraffes, oh my! The elephants were so graceful, yet powerful at the same time. We saw a herd of 100 elephants all different sizes cross our path to get to a watering hole. The giraffes were so tall and awkward, they reminded me of myself.

Our first encounter with a lion was exciting and surprising. One morning, while driving around seeing what we could find, our guide, Benson, had told us how there were no crocodiles in the area. At least 5 minutes later, we passed a small lake and he pointed out a “crocodile”. My family searched the water for it enthusiastically, saying they had seen it, while to me it was nowhere in sight. While looking for the crocodile, we had not noticed what our guide had stopped next to. On the opposite side of the jeep was a big male lion about 6 feet away taking a nap under an acacia tree. When we all turned to look, my grandmother just about jumped out of her seat but managed to hold back a yelp of fear. We poked fun at her for it the whole rest of the trip. Oh, and if you have not already figured it out, there was no crocodile. That to me was the real start to our trip in Africa.

My one and only wish was to see a lion cub, a cute, little, furry lion cub. We saw plenty of big lions and lionesses, some from the same pack often, but no cubs. On our last morning, we went on a safari where we found a trail of footprints that our guide used to track the wild animals. This specific trail led us to lion cubs! I was so exuberant and fascinated. It was precious to watch the lion cubs wrestle and play with each other as the mother just laid there watching as if she were sun bathing.

That was the perfect ending to a perfect trip. The flight home was long and I was sad to leave, but I had missed my friends and was happy to get back to civilization. Traveling is a passion of mine and I am so lucky to have taken trips like this considering my age. Everyone should travel to Africa at least once in their lives. I know I would like to go back someday but if you get there before me, tell Africa I say Jambo!